| Montefioralle | ||
 | ||
| State | Italy | |
|---|---|---|
| Region | Tuscany | |
| Altitude | 347 m a.s.l. | |
| Inhabitants | 79 (2001) | |
| Prefix tel | 39 055 | |
| POSTAL CODE | 50022 | |
| Time zone | UTC 1 | |
| Patron | Saint Stephen | |
Position
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Montefioralle is a fraction of the municipality of Greve in Chianti in the province of Florence.
To know
It is a castle, formerly known as Monteficalle. The village, located a short distance from Greve in Chianti (1.2 km), is almost circular in shape.
Background
The oldest documented memory dates back to February 6, 1085 when a deed was drawn up in a castro Monteficalli. The castle is mentioned several other times in the early 12th century as one curtis in which official deeds were drawn up, deeds kept in the archives of the Badia a Passignano. Among these documents, the one dated 4 March 1122 is of particular interest; in that document the sale of a good between a certain Benne di Gerardo and Gisla di Guinildo together with the mother Ermengarda del fu Rolando is certified, the characters of this story all bear a name of Germanic origin so much so that it was hypothesized that they were exponents of a noble family of Lombard lineage.
In later times the castle and village of Monteficalle it was owned by the Ricasoli, Benci di Figline and the Gherardini of Montagliari.
The village was located along a street called via del Guardingo di Passignano, this road connected the three main valleys of the southern part of the Florentine countryside, Val d'Elsa, Val di Pesa and Val di Greve with the Upper Valdarno.
In ancient times the castle was known as Monteficalle to then become Montefioralle in the 18th century.
How to orient yourself
Montefioralle: full screen map.
The town developed around the highest part which corresponds to the ancient feudal settlement. Developing around the ancient castle, the village has taken an elliptical shape, consisting of a radial road from which winding alleys all belonging to the feudal keep. Of the ancient formwork, today there is a powerful rectangular structure that has a row of Alberese stone cladding. The complex, today scapezzato and reduced to residential use, should date back to between the end of the twelfth and the beginning of the thirteenth century.
All around the built-up area there are the city walls that repeat the shape of the village. The parts of the walls still preserved today have the remains of some towers, now converted into houses, and the three access doors, all open directly in the walls. The walls made entirely of scapezzato stone are to be dated between the end of the thirteenth century and the beginning of the fourteenth.
The urban fabric has a very unitary style, characterized by buildings with medieval structures. Among these buildings there is a house believed to have been owned by the Florentine navigator Amerigo Vespucci and another that has a beautiful pointed portal with a Bigallo coat of arms above it.
How to get
By plane
- 1 Florence-Peretola Airport (Amerigo Vespucci Airport, IATA: FLR). About 27 km away, it is certainly the most convenient airport for those who have to take this means to get closer. Once you leave the airport, you can take a taxi to go to your destination or to the most convenient and cheapest public transport. There are also scooter and car rental services.
By car
The A1 motorway is the main artery that connects Greve to the rest ofItaly. Since there is no dedicated exit, for those coming from the south it is preferable to exit at "Incisa Valdarno" continuing in the direction Figline Valdarno and from there follow signs for Greve in Chianti. Those coming from the north, on the other hand, should go out at "Firenze sud" and then take the SR 222 (Chiantigiana) towards Greve in Chianti.
On the train
There are no railway stations in the municipality of Greve In Chianti. The closest railway stations are those of: Engraved in Val D'arno, Figline Valdarno, Rovezzano, Vicchio is San Piero a Sieve. Once you arrive at these stations you need to take other means of transport (taxi or bus) to get to your destination.
From the station of Florence Santa Maria Novella it is possible to take a bus at the opposite terminus.
By bus
The most convenient way to reach Greve is by interurban buses of the acvbus.
How to get around
What see
- 1 Church of Santo Stefano. Of original Gothic structure, it was remodeled between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries with the addition of baroque altars and underwent other renovations in the nineteenth century.
- Inside, with a single nave, it houses various valuable works. On the first altar on the right Santi Michele Arcangelo, Jacopo, Stefano and Domenico, canvas by Orazio Fidani dated 1647; at the main altar there is the table of the fifteenth century depicting Trinity and Saints attributed to the Master of the Epiphany of Fiesole; on the left the panel depicting Annunciation and Saints by the Maestro di Sant'Ivo and datable between 1395 and 1400; at the first altar on the left there is the most valuable work placed here and it is the cuspidate table of the Madonna with Child of the so-called Maestro di Montefioralle (according to some scholars identifiable with Meliore di Jacopo), of school Florentine and dated to the end of the thirteenth century.
- In the company there is a Crucifix wooden seventeenth-century and the nineteenth-century copy of the Madonna of Porta Pinti by Andrea del Sarto.
Events and parties
What to do
Shopping
How to have fun
Where to eat
Where stay
Safety
How to keep in touch
Around
- 2 Parish church of San Cresci (TO Greve in Chianti, just outside Montefioralle). The ancient church is dedicated to one of the most important evangelizers of the Florentine countryside. Its evocative exterior in Romanesque style dates back to the 12th century; a portico was added in the fifteenth century, with a round arch and two mullioned windows, whose columns are surmounted by cubic capitals and hanger pulvins, completed by a second order at the beginning of the nineteenth century, in imitation of the underlying one.
Other projects
Wikipedia contains an entry concerning Montefioralle
Commons contains images or other files on Montefioralle
